Suspect Odin Dwyer also had ties to Boulder area

Sonoma County Sheriff's officials have now identified this previously released surveillance photo as showing triple-murder suspect Odin Dwyer.
( Sonoma County Sheriff's Office)

Francis Dwyer, Facebook profile portrait.
(
CLIFF GRASSMICK
)

A father and his son, who has ties to the Boulder-Denver area, are in custody in connection with a triple slaying in northern California last month in which a Boulder man was one of the men killed.

Detectives with the Sonoma County, Ca., Sheriff's Office on Friday announced the arrests of Francis R. Dwyer, 65, and his son, Odin Leonard Dwyer, 38, on suspicion of murder and additional unspecified charges.

Both men are being held in connection with the slayings Feb. 5, inside a home near Forestville, Calif., of 42-year-old Todd Klarkowski, of Boulder, Raleigh Butler, 26, of Petaluma, Calif., and Richard Lewin, 46, of Huntington, N.Y., during an alleged botched marijuana deal.

Already arrested in the case was Central City resident Mark Cappello, 48, of Central City. He was arrested Feb. 14 in Alabama on a fugitive warrant and was being held without bail in connection with the killings.

On Friday, authorities announced they had arrested Francis Dwyer at his residence in Truth or Consequences, N.M., and that he was being held in that state pending his extradition to Sonoma County.

In addition, detectives arrested his son, Odin Dwyer, at an unspecified location outside Denver, and said he, too, was being held in Colorado pending his extradition to California. The sheriff's release stated that the younger Dwyer had ties to several Colorado communities, including Golden.

Odin Dwyer's Facebook page, under "work and education," lists line cook at the The Lazy Dog on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, and states he is a 2003 graduate of the University of Maine.

On Saturday, Lazy Dog general manager Tanelle Ward confirmed Odin Dwyer worked there "for a short period of time, maybe a couple of months," about 18 months to two years ago.

"One of my employees just told me that he was fired," Ward said.

Murder victim Todd Klarkowski

Odin Dwyer was arrested in Longmont in January 2011 on charges including driving under the influence, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records. The possession and paraphernalia charges were later dropped.

Francis Dwyer does not have an arrest record in Colorado, according to bureau records.

Sonoma authorities said that the father and son were seen traveling together with Cappello in Wyoming, Nevada and Napa County, Ca., just days prior to the homicides. The investigation, which took detectives to Alabama, Colorado and New Mexico, led them to believe that all three suspects played a role in the Feb. 5 killings.

Detectives said that they have recovered evidence in their investigation which they believe is from the home of Butler's mother, which is where the shooting deaths occurred.

Investigators have said the three suspects had arranged to buy a large amount of marijuana at Butler's mother's residence. The victims' bodies were discovered in a bedroom by Butler's brother and his girlfriend, who had become concerned after they could not reach Butler by phone for hours.

Cappello was pulled over for a traffic violation Feb. 14 on eastbound Interstate 10 west of Mobile, Ala. During that traffic stop, Mobile deputies found a search warrant linked to the vehicle, a white 1995 Ford Bronco, stemming from the Sonoma County triple homicide case, police said.

They alerted Sonoma County sheriff's detectives, who then secured a warrant for Cappello's arrest, Myles said. He is expected to be booked into the Sonoma County Jail within the next few days.

Detectives have not disclosed whether Cappello and Klarkowski, who both lived in Colorado, knew each other.

Klarkowski was arrested on drug charges in 1999 and served six months in prison, according to Colorado court records. He originally was sentenced to two years of probation, but the probation was revoked.

Friday's announcement stated that while detectives believe they have the three people responsible for the slayings, their investigation is ongoing and there is still much work to be done, including but not limited to additional interviews of people both inside and outside California.

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